Lorrie McMahon, superintendent of the Brandon School District, is pictured at the administration office. The Brandon Board of Education recently denied a $100,000 proposal to open a charter school at the vacant Sherman Lifelong Learning Center. School officials say that the district would lose state funding if a charter school were to open. The Oakland Press file photo/VAUGHN GURGANIAN

Rather than sell the vacant Sherman Lifelong Learning Center and allow it to be converted to a charter school, the Brandon Board of Education voted to move forward on plans to demolish the structure.

Mary Wilcox, director of the Ortonville Montessori Center and a group of parents calling themselves North Oakland County Charter School Association, had offered to buy the long-closed school for $100,000 to open a charter school.

But officials at the 3,127-student Brandon School District think they would lose more than that in state funding per student if a charter school were to open and district parents decided to send their children there instead of Brandon public schools. Every time a student moves to a different school, the state aid goes to that new school.

"I am very happy with the vote," said Superintendent Lorrie McMahon.

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"The building is really not appropriate for children anymore," McMahon said. "We have had it empty for several years and we didn't keep it up."

The superintendent said the district already had started down the path to demolish the building before Wilson and a group of residents made the request to purchase the building.

"And we don't believe it is important that a charter buy our building at a minimum price," she said. The asking price originally was around $600,000.

"It would be competition for us," said McMahon, adding, "I don't disagree with competition, but I do disagree with money going into a private organization."

The Brandon district already has plans to close an elementary school next year because of declining enrollment, and a charter elementary school opening in the district could accelerate that decline, McMahon said.

In the fall, the district will have two kindergarten through third grade schools and one fourth grade through sixth grade elementary, along with a middle and high school.

Once asbestos abatement is complete, firefighters will use the building for a training site before it is demolished and cleaned up in the fall, the superintendent said. There are no immediate plans for the site.

Meanwhile, Wilcox said she and the group are not ready to give up.

"We are disappointed. At this point, we are open to suggestions. We are looking for a building and even considering looking at vacant property," Wilcox said.

The charter school would not have a management company as some do, Wilcox said. And Montessori principles and teaching techniques are being considered for the charter school that Wilcox and the group would like to open in fall 2014.

"Ultimately, it will be kindergarten through eighth, but to begin, it would be K-second or third and then we would add a grade each year," Wilcox said.

"We are planning to limit class size to 18 and have more individualized learning and more parent involvement, and more innovation in education," she said.

Besides finding a location, the group is seeking funding and searching for an authorizer, something that is required to open a charter school. Most charter schools are authorized by state universities.